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Tag Archives: Cartoon

Diversity is a hot topic these days; minorities want more representation, and the world of entertainment has tried to provide it. Now that superheroes have become a fad, it is only logical they follow suit. But the way it’s being done, honestly, baffles me. For the most part, instead of giving more exposure to characters of diverse genders, ethnicities or religions that they already own, they are changing existing characters to fit those roles!

For example, Thor was replaced by a woman (and not by Lady Sif or the Valkyrie, long-time supporting characters of his, as you’d expect) who just called herself “Thor”; Jimmy Olsen was hinted as being a Transvestite- never mind that all the times he had dressed as a woman were as disguises (and those stories were intended to be humorous) and later reinvented as a Black Man on the Supergirl TV show! Batwoman was reintroduced as a Lesbian, never mind that the original version was most definitely straight (why not give the identity to Det. Montoya, an existing lesbian character instead?) and there was a controversy over whether Daniel Rand (Iron Fist) should be made Asian for the live action TV show, simply because some people think the “White Guy who masters Kung Fu” stereotype is offensive. Honestly, this feels like tokenism to me: “why use the actual minority characters when you can change more popular ones to fill in for them?” Besides, you know that, in most cases, these characters will return to their original status. Does anyone believe The Falcon will remain as Captain America?

Admittedly, Non-WASP characters are few and rarely as well known as most major Comic Book characters. But if no push is done, their situation will never improve. After all, there were times no one had heard of Superman or Spider-Man! I’m pretty sure if they wanted, DC and Marvel (and their parent companies) could find ways to make them popular. Make them members of famous teams, then give them their own spin off series, movies or shows. Most people agree Marvel screwed up in not giving Black Widow her own movie by now, despite being one of the most popular characters in the Avengers movies, for example. Sure they might fail, but if they never try, how will they know?

Also, if they feel they don’t have diverse characters who are strong enough to support their own series, or fear the ones they have are too stereotypical (which admittedly was a problem with many) then create new ones! The new Miss Marvel, a Pakistani-American teenage girl, has been very popular in the comics, and I bet she would transition very well to TV.

All I’m saying is, if the big companies really want to gain the support of minorities, they need to give more than a token effort. One of those “obscure” heroes might very well be the next Big Thing.

Little Charmers is a doll line for little girls; here I’ll talk about the cartoon based on it.

The show is about three little girls living in a Magical World, trying to learn magic and inevitably getting in trouble. You can tell its true purpose is to sell the toys- every episode features the Charmers using their tools, flying on their brooms and going to their “charmhouse” right down to the same musical sequences. But this is par for the course for cartoons these days. That’s not what bothers me. It’s the (probably unintentional) message the show carries.

You see, most episodes go like this: a grownup warns the Charmers not to do something; they do it anyway; trouble ensues, and they usually end up going to a grownup to help them fix things and say they are sorry. So far so good.

But in almost all cases, the grownups will say “Oh well, I guess you learned your lesson” and forgive them. They never get punished. Sometimes they get congratulated or thanked! And it’s not like the stuff they do is always harmless; in one episode they ruined magic for the whole town, and in another, they froze it over!

But perhaps most annoying of all, they never learn! You can bet that not only they will be disobeying their elders again by next episode, but that often they commit similar errors too. It’s an insult to the intelligence of even its intended preteen audience to believe they could get away with that.

If I might be sounding too harsh, it’s because we are living in an age of enlightened cartoons that can teach lessons and still be entertaining- My Little Pony and Sofia The First are great examples of this. And other than this, the show is very good- in animation, design, music, and even worldbuilding.

To be fair, not all episodes are like that. Maybe someone took notice and a memo was passed around because some latter episodes improved. In some the problems were not caused by the Charmers, and in a few, they actually managed to solve things on their own! Possibly the best episode was the one where they turned themselves into ogres so they could win a game, only to learn that playing unfairly ruins the fun for everyone.

Overall, Little Charmers is a cute, harmless show. Just make sure you watch it with your kids and that they don’t get the impression they can away with a “sorry” in real life.

As I post this, I’m now 50 years old. Mine has been mainly an uneventful life; yet I feel very grateful for my existence. I have friends, I have family, I have my health- and I have Fiction. As far as I can remember, Fiction in one form or another has formed part of my life, helping me escape the dullness of my reality. So today I want to take the chance to celebrate it. (Warning: this is going to be long. 😛 )

It all began for me in the 60’s as for most people: with TV cartoons. In particular, there was one about a little turtle (sorry, can’t remember the title) who wanted to fly. After many attempts, it succeeded in the end… because it got KILLED and became an angel! O_O What?? I know, it was a joke, I get that now but boy was I PISSED as a Kid! And I actually did something about it, too: I took a book that (conveniently) had printing only on one side of the pages, and used it to draw my own version of the story in which the turtle fulfills its wish without dying. Yep, that was my first fanfic! Oh, and I was in the story, too- making it a self-insert as well! How appropriate. XD

Next came comic books. In Spanish, at first. There were two types: translations of American companies such as DC or Gold Key (no Marvels- probably due to some copyright or distribution issues) as well as original ones made in Mexico featuring characters such as Kaliman or Fantomas. Comics in English started being sold here in the late 70’s; I was floored by my discovery of the Marvel Universe (I already knew Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and The Avengers from the cartoons, but had no idea there were so many more!) From then on I actually would spend my lunch money once a week on comics. 😛 I ended up becoming known as the local “comic book kid” and my collection, by the time I stopped, had soared to about 700. I still have it btw.

In the 70’s I also discovered Anime. Well actually I had seen “cartoons” such as Speed Racer before, I just didn’t realize they were from Japan- much less the potential in them! That changed with the Giant Robot show Mazinger Z in 1972. While barely known in the US, in Hispanic America it became very popular, to the point people still remember it today. It became my favorite anime then and while I have seen better ones since, I still have a lot of appreciation for it.

I met some fellow geeks in high school- wow, I wasn’t the only one?- who introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons and therefore to the concept of role-playing. We didn’t get to play much, but I found the whole idea that you could mathematically describe even magic mind-blowing; I began collecting rpg books for its own sake.

In the 80’s, something unexpected occurred: one of my hobbies led me to a profound revelation. I used to read Fantasy novels- not many, but I was a fan of Piers Anthony, especially his Incarnations of Immortality series. In them, concepts such as Death or Nature were physically embodied by humans as if they were jobs that had to be passed on. The bad guy was The Devil, who was supposed to not be an Incarnation at first. But in the last two novels, it was revealed that not only was the Devil a human too, but so was God, and the Devil had been trying to undo the injustices caused by the current, uncaring Divine Officeholder all along! I was raised Catholic and I got very nervous as I realized where the novels were heading; I even considered dropping them. But after some thinking, I realized that was silly. What kind of faith you have if you allow something made for entertainment challenge it? Even more: I realized that I had never actually thought about religion. Like most people, I just accepted what those who raised me taught me to believe. But people are free willed, and we should decide by ourselves what we believe in.

In 1996, I played my first RPG video game- Super Mario: Legend of the Seven Stars. OK I mostly bought it because it was a Mario game, but I so greatly enjoyed the experience that buying the guide/then the RPG/then playing for hours till I found everything became a habit for years. Too bad they don’t make game guides anymore (online walkthroughs aren’t quite the same.)

The coming of the new millennium… was not a nice time to me. Because of the recession, I lost many of my resources- Blockbuster Video, my local movie theater, local bookstores- all gone. Worst of all were the comics. The things DC and Marvel did to characters I had followed for years left me aghast. DC started it with the “Secret Identity” event where the rape AND murder of Elongated Man’s wife was a major plot point; and Marvel’s lowest point came with the “One More Day” story where Spider-Man makes a deal with Mephisto (aka as Satan) to save his aunt’s life, erasing his marriage from history in exchange! By the time DC decided to revise its history *yet again* with 2005’s “Flashpoint” event, I threw up my hands and gave up on comics altogether. Not on the characters- I still follow Marvel and DC in movies, cartoons etc; just not in the comics. I keep hoping some day things will improve… but from I’ve heard, that’s not the case, yet. Oh sure, there are exceptions, I hear good things about comics like Batgirl or Miss Marvel. But not enough.

Things improved with one thing, tough: the Internet. It put me both in contact with old friends (such as Liz, a lady from the States I had befriended via an animation newsletter in the 80’s) and an the RPGClassics Agora, a website where I posted my first online stories and spent a lot of time chatting with people of similar interests. However problems both personal and with my computer led me to reduce my activities for a while.

Finally, last year, something happened. After being paid to do a video on my computer, I found the experience so enjoyable I started my own Youtube channel. That felt so fulfilling I started this Blog as well- another experience that’s been greatly rewarding. 🙂 And recently, I started my own webcomic- that one has been harder to pull off, but I still enjoy it. (You can see it here, if you want: http://raitokomikku.thecomicseries.com/comics/1/ ) Oh btw, I also made a special video to celebrate some of the events mentioned above. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L9a0FV8OoA&feature=youtu.be

So what’s next? Well, who knows? That’s half the fun- taking things in as they come, enjoying what you can, learning from what you can’t. I guess that’s the lesson I learned after 50 years of life, and now share with you all.

Before I finish, I want to send a message to some very special groups of people: To TV Tropes.com, especially to my fellow players in the Justice Avengers Forum Game; and also to the Basic Action Super Heroes RPG Facebook group, where I hang out and post ideas often. Thanks to all of you for your support in recent times. May we have fun together for many years more! 🙂

Now that Steven Universe has begun producing new episodes, I’ve decided to start converting characters from the show in Basic Action Super Heroes rules again (see earlier blog entries for the main characters.) I realized however that it would be easier if I started by designing the Gem race Archetype first. So, here it is! I hope you find this useful or interesting.

Please keep in mind that there are likely still many facts about the Gems yet to be revealed. I plan to update this as time goes.

(Once again, thanks to the Steven Universe Wiki for the data!)

Background: The Gems are an alien race of sentient gemstones. They have the ability to form a body around themselves, but as long as the gem itself isn’t shattered, they cannot die.

Thousands of years ago, the Gems developed advanced technology and began traveling to other planets, robbing them of minerals to make more Gems, not caring how this harmed other lifeforms.

Until a Gem named Rose Quartz opposed the Homeworld Gems in their attempt to plunder Earth. After a terrible war, Homeworld abandoned its plans for Earth, but Rose’s surviving warriors -The Crystal Gems- were left exiled on the planet.

A few years ago, Rose met the human, Greg Universe, and they fell in love. They had a child, Steven, but because he needed her Gem to survive, she was forced to discorporate to allow him to be born. Since then, Steven has been raised by Greg and the other Crystal Gems.

Recently, the Homeworld Gems have become aware of the Crystal Gems’ presence on Earth again. There have been several clashes between them, and more are likely to happen.

And now for something really obscure: an animated series from 1973, about a teacher who takes her students on adventures across space and time. (No, not the Magic School Bus, although there are similarities.) It was made by Filmation, the same company that later made He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The show is remembered today mostly for starring (sort of) real-life Australian singer Rick Springfield.

I saw this series as a child (dubbed into Spanish) and I had no idea about most of these facts back then, though I got the impression this Springfield fellow was supposed to be someone famous. In any case, I only saw a few episodes (or at least, I only remember a few- it’s been over 40 years!) so please excuse me if I get anything wrong. I had to do some fact-checking online first in fact.

Anyway, the show is about one Miss Tickle (Mys… tical.. I get it now!) a High School teacher who is also a witch (though all of her powers seemed to come from stuff she carried- for example, her magic portals were created with a piece of chalk, she brought her cat statuette Tut-Tut to life using a ring, etc.) and, for some reason that was never clear to me, every time she was contacted for help by Rick (who didn’t seem to be a witch himself, so I have no idea how he got involved in these things) she brought her class along. Kinda irresponsible, no? Especially as she rarely seemed to need their help. The whole thing was obviously an adventure/comedy in the style of Scooby-Doo! except with real magic. I did like the designs and ideas, though. Everything about this show was very “Seventish” especially the music- Rick would *always* sing a song in every episode. Even at that age I could tell the show was at least in part meant to “sell” him.

There was a DVD released in 2007 with all 16 episodes and lots of interviews and other information.

Recommended for fans of animation, fantasy, comedy, adventure and the 70’s.

Sure, why not? Pokemon is still very popular, and BASH is both easy to learn yet complex enough to cover the details of the Pokemon games. A campaign set in the Pokemon World would be a nice change of pace, or a good introduction to BASH for fans of Pokemon.

Obviously, Pokemon should be bought using the Sidekick/Pet Advantage (unless you’re playing *as* Pokemon, as in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games.) Those owned by NPCs should be treated as minions. Wild Pokemon are also minions unless they are very high level or (most) Legendary Pokemon; treat them as Villains in that case.

Whether Pokemon have the Non-Sentient Disadvantage is a Narrator choice, but I would advice its use. First because this seems to be the case in most of the games (if not in the cartoons) and second because of the controversial implications that capturing sentient beings and forcing them to fight would bring. Legendary Pokemon might be the exception, but then each is unique already. In a Campaign where Pokemon are sentient, just assume they speak Pokemonese, a language humans haven’t deciphered yet.

To convert a Pokemon, start by finding the closest creature description in BASH. Make the following adjustments:

Powers: Build appropriate Powers based on the Pokemon’s Special Ability and Moves (the latter must *always* have the Energy Cost Limitation). In addition:

Struggle- Special Attack 1 (+1 DM with Brawn, no Range or Area) <Only usable when Energy Points run out, -1, power must be Pushed> 1 pt. (Normal type)

Weaknesses: Most Pokemon also have a Damaging Weakness to one or more of the Attack Types listed above.

Pokeballs are represented by the following Power:

Immobilization (level varies by type of Pokeball, no Area) <Gadget (Ammunition- uses depend on number of balls carried)>. Other Enhancements and Limitations depend on the type of Pokeball eg. a Net Ball has Extra Effect on Bug and Water-type Pokemon. Note that capturing a Pokemon doesn’t automatically gain it as a Pet; the character must buy each as a separate Advantage first.

Dragon Hunters is a French animated series about an “odd couple” of adventurers, the strong but shy Lian-Chu and the sneaky but cowardly Gwizdo who try to eke out a living hunting the weirdest dragons ever. It’s mostly a comedy and not really remarkable, except for the setting: a land that for some reason is broken up in chunks that float in the sky!

I had already seen some episodes of the series, which is why when I saw the movie (which was made in 2008) being advertised on Hulu, I almost didn’t bother to watch it. But there was nothing else good on, so I did. And boy, am I glad I did!

This movie is great in various way. Not so much the plot, which is pretty basic: the dragon this time is an abomination capable of laying waste to kingdoms, and a little princess mistakes our charming rogues for noble knights and gets them hired to kill the monster before it wakes up. Gwizdo wants to take the money and run, but the princess ends up tagging along. The rest is pretty predictable, except for the way they defeat the dragon, which I admit I did not see coming.

What makes this story great is the characterization. All the characters get moments that show them at their best and their worst. You feel sorry even for Gwizdo! And the storytelling tricks (such as a dream sequence) are pretty clever.

This is helped along by the great voice acting. I particularly liked Princess Zoe, who sounded like a real girl and not an adult pretending to be one.

And the CGI and sound effects are gorgeous! Especially the “End of the World” sequence with the “landmasses” crashing into each other.

If the movie has a flaw, is that it feels stretched out at times. For example the introductory sequence with Lian-Chu battling the worm-dragon could have been much shorter.

By the way, the movie is actually a prequel to the series, which explains the ending.

Overall, Dragon Hunters The Movie is a surprisingly good family film. I recommend it, especially for watching over the holidays.